Best Movies of 2013... So Far

Iron Man 3 is the biggest box office success this year. It's followed by Man of Steel. It's clear that Americans like movies about men who can fly through the air. The third biggest success as of July 5 is Oz the Great and Powerful. James Franco flies through the air in that film. He simply does so in a balloon.

Franco has had Spring Breakers and This is the End so far this year. Later, he has As I Lay Dying, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, so the first half of 2013 is turning out to have been a busy time for Franco. Yes, he's been busy, but he is perhaps not as busy as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

In the span of three months, Johnson starred in three, #1 films in the box office. For March, he had G.I. Joe: Retaliation. For April, he had Pain and Gain, and, for May, he had Fast & Furious 6. The latter of which was #1 for two consecutive weekends. All those films play off the WWE star's muscular physicality. However, another movie he had this year called Snitch didn't and proved Johnson's acting chops more.

Of the 20 films dated for 2013 that were #1 in the box office as of July 5, Fast & Furious 6 is probably the most fun. Some people might be more partial to Robert Downey, Jr., but I wasn't. He might not have been as witty as Robert Downey, but I was taken more by Leonardo DiCaprio's performance in The Great Gatsby.

It wasn't a #1 film, but The Great Gatsby is currently in the top ten of movies that made the most money so far this year. I don't normally like to point to box office as an indication of quality, but, given that it's a movie without flying men or huge explosions or passable animation, its success is somewhat significant. The studio's delay of its release from last Christmas to this past Memorial Day seemed to have paid off.

Best Movies Released Theatrically

WAR WITCH by Kim Nguyen
THE SAPPHIRES by Wayne Blair
MY BROTHER THE DEVIL by Sally El Hosaini
WHAT RICHARD DID by Lenny Abrahamson
WHAT MAISIE KNEW by Scott McGehee and David Siegel
YOSSI by Eytan Fox
THE GREAT GATSBY by Baz Luhrman
WELCOME TO PINE HILL by Keith Miller
FROM UP ON POPPY HILL by Goro Miyazaki
DISCONNECT by Henry Alex Rubin
GINGER & ROSA by Sally Potter
SNITCH by Ric Roman Waugh
THE HEAT by Paul Feig

Honorable Mentions

THE EAST by Zal Batmanglij
WE STEAL SECRETS: THE STORY OF WIKILEAKS  by Alex Gibney
AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY by Terence Nance
THE RELUCTANT FUNDAMENTALIST by Mira Nair
MY AMITYVILLE HORROR by Eric Walter

Best Movies Released on DVD/VOD

GAYBY by Jonathan Lisecki
IN THE HIVE by Robert Townsend
CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER by Lee Toland Krieger
KEEP THE LIGHTS ON by Ira Sachs
FAT KID RULES THE WORLD by Matthew Lillard
TOUCHBACK by Don Handfield 
GUN HILL ROAD by Rashaad Ernesto Green
THE LAST FALL by Matthew A. Cherry
MORGAN by Michael D. Akers
THE DYNAMITER by Matthew Gordon
THE KILL HOLE by Mischa Webley
BAD BOY STREET by Todd Verow
LUV by Sheldon Candis